Synopsis

The country’s homelessness crisis can feel distant and bureaucratic, until you see it through the eyes of a child. Shelter follows three unhoused children and their parents over one summer in Los Angeles as they seek steady shelter. Skylar’s family is living day to day: in the car, in the woods or, when her dad can scrape together a few dollars, the respite of a motel room. She dreams of “waking up as a princess” in a beautiful room of her own, while her father struggles to find a steady job so he can make his little girl’s dreams come true. Nicholas and his mother Jessica spent the summer in their car, parked near the beach where neighbors would be less likely to call the police on them, until they secure emergency housing in a motel. It’s a short-term fix that gives Jessica 30 days to find a more permanent solution to their nomadic lives. Victoria is the elder daughter of housing activist Martha Escudero, one of the founders of the Reclaiming Our Homes movement. After two years of couch surfing, Martha became desperate to provide a safe environment for her daughters. So she broke the locks on an abandoned, state-owned single story house in suburban Los Angeles, and “occupied” it while she figures out their next move. Amid threats of eviction and the hostility of neighbors who accuse them of squatting, Victoria plants a garden and hopes her family will soon be able to put down real roots. While each family’s circumstances are different, and their futures uncertain, they are bound by love and a common determination to have a better life, against all odds.

Trailer

“Shelter is a film that centers the most vulnerable members of the country’s most vulnerable population: unhoused children. In doing so, we wanted to strip away the excuses we use to avoid or explain away homelessness; that it is the result of addiction and other personal failures. The families we profiled wanted nothing more than to break the cycle of need they found themselves trapped in. They yearned for stable homes, steady jobs and to get off of government services, but despite their best efforts were unable to get a foothold on the ladder out of poverty. These are parents who love their children and would do anything to ensure their safety and happiness. And in seeing their struggles and triumphs, we hope privileged audiences will recognize that we have more in common with our unhoused neighbors than we think, and that we owe it to them to not look away. “

- Smriti Mundhra